Unexpected
by Bring-On-The-Water
Summary: A short story based on fallen, but instead of Luce falling for Daniel, what if she fell for Cam? How would that change the rest of the story? First fanfiction, sorry if its awful :)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

I woke up an hour and a half before I was supposed to, that being a normality for me. So remembering to make a mental note to attempt to change my sleeping pattern was in order, because I knew I would need to.

It came apparent to me that I was going to have to be sent to a new school in September because I'd been accused of starting a fire to kill Trevor, who was my "boyfriend" at the time. I of course hadn't started the fire, but that night was hazy for me. It was a huge struggle to remember everything the court were asking me to, and after crumbling into the pressure, the judge therefore decided it was necessary for me to have counselling, where they put me on every drug they could think of. Some had terrible side effects and caused all sorts of horrible things, like hallucinations and nightmares. My mum wasn't particularly keen on the idea of sending me to a reform school called Sword & Cross, but my counselor had talked her into it, which I resented him for.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Going to Sword & Cross would be awful. And my parents knew it. They kept turning around to look at me in the car, like they felt they had to keep watch on me otherwise I'd disappear. The Sword & Cross website portrayed the reform school as a place where all types of people where accepted. I didn't believe it for a moment. Even though Sword & Cross was a reform school, I knew there would be pupils there who had done a lot worse than me, and would be more threatening than what I was used to. I also knew I would never fit in, like I'd always have this belief that I didn't belong.

"Luce?" My mum said, turning to look at me.

"Yeah?" I replied.

My mum looked like she was about to cry. I knew what I had to do. Squeezing her hand, I said, "Mum, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I'll be back at normal school before you know it."

No more words were needed, she could tell everything would be fine for me. If only I could believe it.


	3. Chapter 2

When we arrived at Sword & Cross, we'd somehow arrived late, even though we'd left with plenty of time. My mum and dad signed me in, said their goodbyes, and both reluctantly left. I walked into the main office, and was greeted by three people, and two of them raised their eyebrows at me. While we stood there, in silence, I noticed that a tall, dark haired boy was staring at me. He had black hair that was in the typical "justin-bieber-swish", he was about half a foot taller than me, with intense green eyes that looked at me like they where looking into my soul. I couldn't help but stare back, until a shrill, high-pitched voice broke my daze.

"Hellooooooo?" Whoever it was, their tone dripped with sarcasm.

I looked in the direction that the voice was coming from, to see a large, burly, man... Or was that woman? I wasn't entirely sure, and I decided not to ask. Sudden realization that I should say something hit me. Something sarcastic. Something that would make these three people remember me.

I cleared my throat, looked around and said, "Me?" I tried to make my tone as sarcastic as possible.

"Well, yes. You were the one having the intense staring match."

I looked at the floor, and thought to myself, _damn, could that have gone any worse?_

The man/woman continued to speak, explaining about how we had three rules to follow. She then went on to claim that it just meant we'd have less rules to break. I didn't pay attention to any of it, being fed up of having rules placed down for every second of my life since the trial. The man/woman picked up on the fact that I didn't pay attention when everyone else put all sorts of mysterious things like pocket knives, spray cans and phones into a box labelled 'no touching, any object found not allowed beyond this point will involve in the student being punished.' I shivered as I wondered what punishments they put in place here.

"Hi Luce." The man/woman's voice was softer now, and it suddenly dawned on me she was a woman.

"Hi... Sorry for not paying attention to you... I didn't mean to offend you or anything-"

"No no no, they told me about you, its no problem. I just wanted to go over the rules with you and make sure you knew everything. Two of the students over there have been on breaks, and have only just returned."

"I... Um... Where have they been?" I asked, more to keep the conversation going than actual genuine interest.

"Busy. That's not something you have to know about. I just wanted to make sure you knew the rules. Beds, meds, reds. Make sure you make a mental note of those." Her tone was back to normal, any sense of compassion gone.

I nodded sharply, sensing she didn't want to be talking to me.

Just as I was about to start talking again, in order to apologize, the door opened and a cold gust of wind blew in, cutting off what I was going to say.

_Damn, its cold here,_ I thought.

I turned around to see who had caused the gust of wind that was still making my hairs on my arms stand up.

It was a long haired girl, with bright red hair, and it seemed like she was perfectly fine being sent here for whatever reason.

"Hey, I'm Arriane. It's great to meet you, _Luce." _She said, emphasizing the fact that she knew my name.

"Hi.. How did you know my-"  
"Name? Don't worry about that, I'll tell you later. Randy?" She said, turning to the woman I'd been speaking to earlier, "Can I give this lovely lady a tour?"

"Sure. Just remember, no telling her any sidesteps to the rules or cheats!" She said, clearly joking.

Arriane laughed her shrill laugh in response. "Will do. Bye!" To me, she muttered, "Say goodbye to the great big dragon!"

I shook my head, begining to get used to her humor, even though I'd spent little over 10 seconds with her.

"Bye." I called to Randy, and then Arriane pulled me away, as if we only had 10 minutes for her to show me around.

As soon as we were out of Randy's earshot, Arriane whispered to me, "Don't worry. I won't tour you around really, I'll just show you the ropes. No worries kid, I got your back."  
"Why are you so... Why are you being so.." I moved my hands in circular motions, trying to think of the right word.

"Nice?" Arriane said, raising her eyebrows at me.

I nodded, and she opened and shut her mouth like a gold fish.

"I-I-I... I just..." She stopped, swallowed, like she was trying to calm herself down, and begun. "I just feel like I have to look after my girlies." I knew that wasn't the original answer she was going to give, but she seemed to smile at herself and mentally pat herself on the back, as if she'd come up with the answer to curing cancer or something. I sighed, and I knew that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She then took me to the field, and unlike my previous school, barely anyone was there, Arriane could have dropped a pin and I would have heard it from anywhere inside the make-shift stadium that seemed to be perminant, like the school had lost their funding elsewhere, not that any of these effects were visual. She pulled me down to a bench, and began talking like there wasn't going to be a tomorrow.

"Okay, so the rules Randy told you? Slightly important. The rules I'm about to tell you? _Very_ important." The way she stressed very gave me the idea that these rules really did matter to my life. "Stay away from the people with braclets or wristbands or whatever you want to call them, they are normally the people who are hardcore rule breakers. Second, don't talk to anyone I haven't told you about-"  
"What?" My mum had taught me time and time again it was rude to butt into what other people where saying, but I felt like this was a special occasion.

"Luce. Don't worry, I'll give you a list of all the people not to talk to later. Don't ask so many questions either-"

"But-"  
"There's more. Randy may have told you about some of the kids you were with in there?" She pointed backwards, where i guessed must have been the direction of the office. I damned myself for not paying more attention. If I wanted to run from Arriane, I'd need to know where the office was. I considered asking her about the tall, green eyed boy, but I sensed she would kill me if I interrupted her again.

"Yeah, I asked her why they had been, but she wouldn't tell me-"

"Yep. That's what I thought. Those special little gems have been in jail for one reason or another. No ones particularly sure what they did, but it must have been really bad..." Her voice trailed off, and I guessed that was where her knowledge about what they'd done ended.

"So they've been in jail?" I sighed.

"Yes, but what did I say about interrupting me?" She waggled her finger at me, like I was in reception and had gone to touch something I wasn't supposed to. She sighed and continued. "They're the beginning of my list of people to stay away from. Cam is the tall, black haired guy. Always looks like he's got a strop on."

"Yeah I met him... Is he a bit of a creep or something?" I questioned, trying to sound casual but guessing my face was bright red and glowing like rudolph's nose at christmas.

"Yep, how'd you guess so soon? Usually it takes a week for people to notice anything about anyone around here. You must be very observant." She said, grinning.

I scoffed, and explained. "No. I'm not normally good at noticing things. It's just he stared pretty intensely." _Almost like he'd have a test on my face and looks, _I added mentally. I decided not to say that out loud, I needed to make a good impression on Arriane, because she seemed like a good friend to have.

Arriane laughed. "No..." She said, still breathless from her laughing fit. "He must of just done that to you."

I shook my head, as if trying to shake the thoughts of this Cam boy out of my mind.

"Next person in there with you. Gabbe. Girl who's been here before, typical california girl, y'know? Friends with everyone, wants to give makeovers, that sort of thing. No one knows why she went to jail though..." Again, Arriane's voice trailed off, and there was a moment of awkwardness, at which point, I decided to change the topic.

"Okay... So there was another boy there? I didn't get to see what he looked like, but you said there were just two people who'd come back so..." My voice trailed off too, as I waited for Arriane to return to what seemed to be her 'normal self'. Eventually she got there, and responded.

"He's called Todd, and you're right. He's completely new. No one knows what he done to get here, maybe he's one of those 'looks good but does bad' boys?" She mused.

I nodded. "It's possible. But strange. He just seemed normal, nice and confused. The other two seemed to know exactly what they were doing, and I know why now."

"Yeah... Alright, lets go to your room then." She got up, brushed herself off, then helped me up.

We then walked to a building which looked like the stuff of nightmares. It had ivy covering all the walls for the whole length, so it just seemed to be a big green box. As if Arriane could read my thoughts, she said "The building was originally yellow of course..." and then she laughed, at my expression, I guessed.

"So..." She said, as we walked towards where I could now see a pair of lime green doors. "You seem like a nice kid. What did you do to get im here?"

I didn't want to talk about Trevor. I shook my head firmly and said, "I don't really..." I decided to go with "It's complicated." Which seemed to satisfy Arriane enough. She took me down a long, plain corridor, where we walked past very colourful doors, most with stickers scribbled onto them, mainly saying things I'd be shouted at for if I said them in front of my parents. Arriane stopped outside a white, pure door, and I couldn't help but feel like it represented me being here. A pure door in a school full of decorated ones.

"This is your room." She said, suddenly turning very professional.

"You're suddenly being very polite... Reason?"

"Well this is the point where I end your tour, so um well, why don't I tell you inside?" She explained, and I sensed there was a reason for this; I walked in behind her.

"You'd better start explaining as to why you couldn't..." My voice wavered, because I could tell by the look on her face that she was deep in thought.

She turned around and looked at me, and said, "Okay. Sit." She pushed me down towards the bed and began to explain about the reds. "Reds are cameras that keep an eye on us all the time. I guess you gathered that. They can't keep an eye on us in here, so this is the safest place to talk. I had to pretend like I was giving you a tour and not that we were outside just talking. Don't worry about tomorrow, or monday, I'll come here and pick you up. Your stuff is there..." She pointed over to a desk I hadn't noticed before, and I nodded. "And that ends my tour!" She exclaimed, making motions with her hands for me to pay her. I grinned, used to her humor because of the hour and a quarter I'd spent with her.

Once she had left, I sat down on my bed and took in my surroundings. Arriane was right, no cameras in here. I guessed they thought we desereved a little privacy. I began to unpack my belongings, looking at how dull and dreary my clothes were. If it wasn't for the Sword & Cross strict uniform guide, I would _not_ have allowed my mum to pack the sorry clothes I was looking at now. As I hung up my clothes and unpacked all my belongings, I immediately put my hand into my pocket, expecting to feel my phone, and I realized with desperation that it wasn't there. Sighing, I sat down on the bed, and decided to get some rest.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I woke up on Sunday morning, to a loud knock on my door. I was already in a bad mood, having had a major lack of sleep from the night before. My subconscious couldn't help but feel that this was because of the way I was feeling about Cam. I'd decided I had a huge crush on him, because I couldn't stop thinking about him, even when I was sleeping. I slowly opened the door to see a familiar mass of black hair and piercing green eyes staring back at me.

_Oh god. Did he hear what I was thinking?_

I realized we'd been standing, staring at each other, like yesterday again. I cleared my throat and said, "Hi. I don't think we've been properly introduced. My name's Luce. " It then dawned on me that I should be asking how he found my room, but just as I was about to ask, he started talking.

"My name's Cam, but I'm assuming that Arriane told you that." The way he said Arriane's name made me think there was something between them, but I decided not to raise my thoughts.

"I... Um... How did you find my room?" I asked shakily.

"Everyone knows everything around here." He turned his head to the side, and I assumed that he saw something that displeased him, because he sighed and shook his head. "Here's my room number," he said, handing me a green guitar pick, with the number 207 etched into it.

I could tell I was blushing, so I just muttered out a "Thanks." Which led him to turn around and leave, as if he didn't need to say bye. I got the feeling he didn't like whoever's was coming, so I assumed that I wouldn't either. I started to shut the door, but someone's foot stopped me. I opened the door futher, and saw Arriane standing there.

"Luce. What did I tell you about talking to people like Cam?!"

"Sorry... He showed up and I didn't want to be rude-"

"Luce... Honey, he _is_ rude."

"I don't think so-"

"Oh, so how long have you known him for?" As soon as I tried to speak, she broke me off. "Rhetorical question love, _that means you aren't supposed to answer._" She explained, like I didn't already know. "People like Cam aren't good for you. They may seem absolutely normal at first, but they'll change. Fast. You know what? I won't tell you who to talk to and who not to talk to. I'm going to finish my real tour today. Then I'll leave you here till Monday morning, and take you to your lessons. Hurry up. Get dressed." By now, she'd finished her semi-telling off, and she pushed me in the direction of the bathroom in my room. "And don't take long. I don't want to have to wait for you."

When I got into the shower, I began to think over what Arriane had said, and thought about why she wouldn't like Cam so much. Maybe she'd had a crush on him at some point and he hadn't returned it? No. I didn't see Arriane as one of those girls who harboured really silly little crushes like me. Trying to clear my head of all these thoughts, I got out of the shower and got dressed.

When I was fully dressed and ready to go, I walked into the main section of my room to see Arriane lying on my bed, looking bored as ever. She suddenly sprung to life and hugged me.

"Wheres all this coming from?" I asked her, half because I wanted to know where angry-Arriane had gone and half because I was just curious.

"I wanted to apologize for eariler. I shouldn't have been like that with you. Your mistakes are your mistakes. Cam is clearly just going to be one of those mistakes you make-"

"So, what we're taking from this is that you're sorry. Right?" I asked, trying to stop her from lecturing me anymore. I'd had enough of that at home.  
"Yeah."

"Good. Why don't you like him so much anyway?" I tried to ask casually, as we left my room and I locked the door.

"I just... It's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Well..." She seemed hesitant.

"Arriane, are you going to tell me or not?" I asked, my curiosity and impatience getting the better of me.

"Okay... Well I've known him for a very long time. And I mean a _very_ long time." She said, raising her eyebrows at me, like I'd know what she meant by the emphasized very. "He's not one of the good ones, and I'm telling you this to protect you-" She abruptly stopped, and looked at me and then looked at someone coming towards us from quite far away. As the stranger got closer and closer, Arriane caught her breath and turned to look at me. I, meanwhile, was still staring at the stranger, who was walking towards us quite quickly like he was in a rush. My instincts told me he was a _he, _and a quite attractive he. I wondered whether this was Arriane's crush. While all this was going through my head, he'd stopped right in front of us. I looked at him, and then, just like Arriane, I caught my breath.

This boy was beautiful. He had short blonde hair, that was sort of brown at the same time, and his eyes where glowing violet. That was an eye color I'd never seen before. He stared at me for long enough for it to be awkward, but then he turned to Arriane.

"Arriane." he said, as he nodded in greeting.

"Daniel. This is Luce..." Her voice trailed off, and Daniel turned to stare at me again. His stare was nothing like Cam's intense, holding stare, this Daniel boy's stare made me just want to look at the floor. And that was exactly what I did.

"Luce." Arriane muttered, nudging me.

"Hi," I said quietly, verging on muttering it. "As Arriane said, I'm Luce. And I can speak for myself, thank you very much." I said, turning to look at Arriane.

Arriane nodded, embarrassed, and said "Well... I'll leave you two to get better acquainted..." She said, still staring at Daniel as if that was just normal for her. She then turned to hug me, and as she did, she whispered in my ear, "He's a good one. Much better for you than Cam." Even as she said his name, I couldn't help but shiver, as my thoughts turned to mush.

_Snap out of it, Luce._ I told myself.

"I... um..." I was completely unsure how to start the conversation, but I sensed I recognized him from somewhere. "Do I know you?"

"No... I would have remembered a face like yours."

I blushed furiously, but I decided to set him straight. "I don't know what... I'm not sure how you think you feel about me or whatever, but I can assure you..." My voice trailed off, I didn't know how to tell him I didn't return his clear feelings for me without hurting his feelings. "...I don't think I feel the same way." As soon as I said this, I felt awful about it. And I knew I would for the next couple of days. His face dropped, and he just looked... Hurt. I immediately felt the need to apologize, and I almost did, but out the corner of my eye I saw a flash of bright red hair. Arriane. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows, as if she knew what I was saying.

"Right... I'd better let you go then..." He was clearly trying not to cry, and I felt like hugging him but I knew it would only make him think that I maybe did like him.

"Sorry... I hope we can be friends? You seem...Lo- Nice." I cursed myself mentally for almost calling him lovely, but I couldn't help it. I guess it was my reflex for when I upset people.

He nodded and smiled a weak smile. "Sure..." His voice cracked this time, and before I could feel any more awkward, Arriane bounded over.

"Better take her back!" She said, and I guessed she was trying to sound happy as if that would help at all. I'd felt rejection many times and knew exactly how he was feeling, but I couldn't help it if I didn't return his feelings. As soon as we were out of his earshot, Arriane shot me the worst look. "What was that about?" She demanded. "I told you he was one of the nice ones! What were you thinking!" She yelled in desperation. "Couldn't you see how much he liked you?" She asked.

"Yeah but-" I tried to explain myself, but she cut straight back in again, as if she was uninterested in my answers.

"I don't even... I've known Daniel for as long as I've known Cam, and I can tell you now, Daniel is a damn sight better than Cam!"

"Arriane," I said sharply, "I really don't think its any of your business who I reject. Daniel didn't seem right for me, no matter how much better he is than Cam in your opinion! And, how am I supposed to _explain _myself when you constantly cut in?!" I yelled.

"Fine. I'll stay out of your _love life._" She said, using her fingers for extra effect when she said the term love life.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" I demanded.

She took a deep breath as if to calm herself down, and said, "I just think you need to be careful. Can I continue with my tour now?" She asked, and I sensed she was trying to sound like happy-Arriane again.

I sighed and nodded. I was so bored already, and tired of spending time with this girl who had taken such a sudden liking to me. I almost felt like telling her where to shove her tour, but my manners controlled whatever anger I had towards Arriane.

Two hours later, we stopped outside my room, and I assumed this was where the tour finished. To be honest, I was glad to get rid of Arriane for the rest of the day. The last two hours had been in excruciating silence, except from Arriane speaking. Every single thing that she'd pointed out on her tour had been said in a very acidic, sarcastic tone, in a way that made me consider if I even wanted to be friends with her.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She sounded annoyed, but I sensed she had to sound relatively normal for the reds, otherwise we'd have all sorts of people snooping around asking if we'd fought. "At quarter to eight. Classes start at eight. Which I guess you'd gathered, since you're _so_ smart and sure of yourself." Her tone was acidic, almost physically dripping with sarcasm. "Hopefully by then you'll have woken up to how bad of a person Cam is." This part was muttered, barely audible to me. But I gathered she wanted me to hear it from the look she gave me right after. I really did hope that tomorrow we wouldn't argue so much. Arriane seemed like an alright friend to have, for the first couple of days at least. We said our goodbyes, and I shut my bedroom door, hoping that I could find something to do for the next nine hours.

I decided to check my emails, and inwardly groaned at how many I already had from my parents, each one filled to the brim with worry. Beginning to reply to them this afternoon seemed like a good idea, and then I planned to have a hot bath if I had time, as I knew how relaxing they were supposed to be.  
My afternoon and most of the night planned out exactly as I knew they would. Until around half seven, which was when I was in the bath. Suddenly I heard a shrill knocking at the door, which I decided to ignore in case it was Arriane. I couldn't deal with her right now. Who ever was at the door sighed and knocked for about 10 more minutes, but eventually walked away. That night's sleep was the worst I've had in ages, and was full with nightmares and wings.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I woke up really early, about an hour and a half before Arriane was coming to take me to my lessons. I decided to take one last look at my time table. Inwardly, I groaned, because I saw I had maths with a teacher called Mr Cole. I'd always struggled with maths and I sensed this time it would be worse. Way worse. I had a shower and got dressed into the generic Sword & Cross 'uniform', which just meant I was only allowed to wear black. I was determined to challenge this, so I put on a bright red pair of shoes. I inwardly hoped people would notice and think I was 'cool' or something.

An hour and a half later, I'd changed my shoes a million times, weighing up the impact on my fellow students or the impact on my teachers. On one hand, I wanted to make a good impression on my students, in the hope they would think I was alright, cool, approachable even. But on the other hand, I wanted to make a good impression on my teachers, show them I was hard working or whatever. While I was still having this war inside of my head, I heard a sharp knock on the door, which I knew by now was Arriane. I opened the door and told her, "One second. I just need to put my shoes on."  
Arriane heaved out a big sigh, and began tapping her foot. She then said, "You knew I was coming, why weren't you ready?"  
I shook my head at her and said, "Wow. Sorry," I said sarcastically, "I didn't know whether to break the rules on my first day..?" It started out as a statement, but it ended as a question.  
"Like it matters," She said, as if it was obvious. "There are so many other problems here, uniform is not necessarily one of them."

In the end, I went with not wearing the red shoes, deciding my teacher's thoughts on me where a hell of a lot more important to me than my fellow students. While I dithered around, biting my lip about what shoes to wear, there was another knock on the door. I turned around, and saw Cam standing there.

"What do _you_ want?" Arriane asked.

"I came here to see Luce. Not _you._" He said, and his tone of voice made me smirk a bit. It had matched Arriane's perfectly.

"Guys. Can you stop? I don't know, and frankly don't care, what's happened between the two of you. Can you just get along for a bit? Seriously." My tone was all business, and they could tell.

"Fine." Cam said, grinning.

"Fine." Arriane echoed, still glaring at Cam. Not that he seemed to notice at all.

"I can walk her to her lesson, Arriane." Cam said sharply. "I need to talk to her quickly anyway." There was an awkward silence, and I hoped to god that neither of them noticed how beetroot my face was.  
"I don't mind... As long as Arriane's okay with it," I said, trying to shoot her my sweetest look.  
"I don't care. She obviously doesn't need me anyway." She said, trying to sound normal, but her face gave away how rejected she felt. I walked over to her and hugged her, but only for a couple of seconds, because I could see Cam out the corner of my eye and he was getting impatient. "I'll be leaving then. Cam, you're going to be waiting a while. She's taking ages to put her shoes on..." As soon as her sentence was finished, she fled the room.

"So," I said, just trying to make conversation. Cam was started shifting from foot, and I sensed that he had no way of starting to say what he wanted to unless I tried to help him. "What did you want to talk to me about?" He took a step forward, so he was inside my room.

_Woah, he's in my room. What? _My brain was running through the reasons why he might want to be in here, and these thoughts where just fueled by the fact that he slowly shut the door, his eyes on my face the whole time.

"So," I tried again. "I guess you like staring competitions." I was desperately trying to make a joke, because it was becoming awkward, fast.

He nodded, and breathed in a hell of a lot more air then I'd even thought was possible. "I love staring competitions, bit of a hobby for me." I could tell he was trying to keep the conversation light hearted, but I couldn't help but feel that that wasn't how this conversation was going to go.

"We should go." I said, walking towards the door. I couldn't help but notice he was blocking the door.

"I said I needed to talk to you, and that's what's going to happen. You have maths first right? With Mr Cole?" I nodded slowly, surprised at how intimidating he'd suddenly become. "Me too. No one cares about _that_ lesson. It's not even as if you like it. You _hate_ maths." I nodded again, suddenly aware of how close we were. "Good." He then brushed past me, to stand in the middle of my room, then pointed to the bed, and said, "Sit." His tone was all business, a lot like mine earlier.

"Excuse me? I'm not doing what you say-"

"Sit. Please." He pulled a really pleading face, and I knew from the moment he'd told me what to do that I was going to do it. And I sensed he knew that too.

As I sat, I asked, "Seriously. What is all of this about? You're scaring me a bit..." My voice trailed off, I didn't want him to flip and hurt me or anything. His face suddenly turned very apologetic, and he sat down next to me on the bed.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just didn't want you to leave. What I'm going to say is really important, and it's really important you listen to all of it," I nodded, so he took a deep breath and continued. "Okay. So. Arriane introduced you to Daniel yesterday, right?" I nodded again, and he continued. "This is the bit I need you to sit and listen to, because it could get complicated. And its dangerous that I'm telling you this, hence why Arriane didn't want me anywhere near you."

"Because she knew you'd tell me whatever you're about to tell me?" I said.

"Yes. Good. Okay, so Daniel, Arriane, Gabbe... Me..." He broke off, looking at me like I'd manage to work it out myself. When I didn't respond, he sghed and continued. "Many others. All... Angels." He kept sneaking looks at me, like I'd melt or disappear or something. It was like being with my parents all over again.

"Prove it." I said sharply, my voice and tone full of doubt.

He laughed, stood up, and said, "I thought you might say that. Here we go." He shut his eyes, and something I'd never thought even possible happened. He had _wings_! He looked like a bird! I inhaled sharply, as I looked at them. They were a fantastic gold color, and every single piece of light was reflected off, and made the walls look like they were gold too.

"Can I?" I asked curiously, getting up and stepping towards the magnificent gold wings coming out of his back. When he nodded slowly, I decided to go with the 'stroking him like a rabbit' approach. As soon as my hands laid on his gold wings, he moaned softly. I felt some form of an electric shock, like I'd read about in fairy tales.

He sat down and began to talk, his wings still filling most of my room. "You believe this? And you're fine with this?" When I nodded, he grinned. "Good. It's just, you don't exactly have a good track record of dealing with this," He seemed hesitant. "You normally _explode._" When he said the word explode, I inhaled sharply.

"You're being serious? I _explode_ when I see that normally?" He nodded, and I shook my head.

"Do you not believe me? Because if you don't I can always leave..." As soon as he started talking, my eyes drifted to his wings.

"I _do _believe you. I mean, I can_ see_ your wings! I'd be a fool if I didn't believe you. It's just... Your wings are beautiful. Aren't they supposed to be white though?"

"And the stereotype kicks in. No, I'm on... There are sides, and I'm on what may be considered as the 'bad' side. The 'good' side has white wings-"

"Are you saying you're on... Satan's side? Isn't that what's normally considered as the bad side?"

"Yeah... But I promise I'm not that bad." He said, nudging me, in a jokey way.

"That doesn't seem like that's everything?" I asked.

"It's not... Daniel? The guy Arriane introduced you to? He's an angel too. He hasn't chosen sides, he chose you."

"Me? Why would, would... He chose me? I don't understand. If he's an angel, why didn't he choose God's side? No offence to you."

"None taken. I think this is the bit you need to talk to him about because it's his decision, not mine. I feel like I should have told you this because... I think in this life you can handle it."

"Wait. You didn't tell me I have more than one life?!"

"Okay. Well, every 17 years, you meet everyone again. Everyone being Daniel, Arriane, Gabbe, ect."

"And you? Or is it just in this 'life'? I don't think I'm ever going to get used to calling it a life... Ever. Sounds like I'm in a sc-fi, or doctor who... I don't know..." I made circling motions with my hands which made Cam smirk.

"Me too, yeah. I don't really know how to explain this to you... Every 17 years, as I said before, you meet everyone again, and you stay with them for... A while. Until you start... 'Dating' Daniel. But this time, I sense something's different. Something _is _different, sine, y'know, you're still here. But I think something's different between you and Daniel... Though I'm not sure what."

"So... To summarise, you guys are all angels, and every 17 years I show up and meet you all-"

"And fall in love with Daniel." He interjected.

"And fall in love with Daniel, but its not that simple. As soon as he tries to tell me anything, or umm... K-"

"Kiss you." Cam said, grinning at my uncomfortable face.

"Yes... But this time, something's different because I haven't exploded..." I paused, looking at him to make sure I was right. When he nodded, I continued. "And I'm sure, about 90% sure that is, that you're also referring to something being funny between me and Daniel... Because I'm not instantly in love with him. Right?"

"Yes... But that can only mean you like or love someone else..."

I blushed and nodded. "I understand..." I looked at my watch and realised it was one o'clock. "We missed the first two lessons?!" I said, slightly shocked about how fast the time had gone.

"First three. And I'm surprised you still call them lessons? Didn't Arriane explain that to you?" When I shook my head, he sighed and continued. "Well, the first three lessons were all maths. Without a break."

"What?!" I asked, shocked. "I hate maths so much... There's no way I would have made it through that."

"I know. That's why I decided to come now," He said. He sounded like he was going to continue talking, but I had a burning question to ask.

"Right... Wait. Do I hate maths in all my lifes?" I asked, getting excited. I shuffled round to look at him face on.

"Well.. Most of them, plus you don't look like the sort of person that likes maths. I'm really glad we got to talk about this, alone, Luce." He gently grabbed my hand. Which of course, I blushed at, on reflex. "Wait. You don't like me do you?" His voice sounded shocked, but I heard an undertone of excitement. Or maybe I'd just made that up... I couldn't tell.

"Of course not!" I yelled, pulling my hand away.

"It's fine if you do..." He said, clearly trying to calm me down. "I don;t mind if you do, it's just... That's never happened before..."

"I don't. Could you leave?" When he didn't shift, I said, "_Now._" I made sure my tone was as acidy as possible.

"I don't think that's the best idea... I didn't mean it like that..."

I was way beyond even listening to what he was saying. "Cam. _LEAVE._ I don't want you here anymore. Don't talk to me. Ever again." I pushed him towards the door, and we both seemed momentarily shocked by the strength I'd seemed to have gained.

"Fine. I won't. I tried to be nice to you-" His patience had finally broke.

"Really?! You have a funny idea of what nice is. I was brought up to believe it's when a person cares about another person's feelings!" I was yelling so loud, I was surprised no one had come yet.

"Goodbye." He said, turning on his heel.

"Arrogant PRICK!" I yelled, so loud, and he reacted by slamming the door. In a second, Arriane was outside my door.

"Luce. Where the hell have you been?! I even told you were you're classes where."

My heart was still pumping from the adrenaline from the situation before, and I knew I was about to crash. I sunk to the floor, tears streaming down my face.

"Luce!" Arriane was at my side in a moment. "What happened?"

"C-c-Cam-"

"No... No no no... What's he told you?"

"T-t-t-that you're all a-a-angels, and tha-"

"Luce. That is _enough_. I told you to stay away from him, you wouldn't listen..."

"H-h-he he said that every 17 years I meet you guys again and fall in love with D-D-Daniel every time, except this time-"

"And why do you believe him?" When I didn't respond, she said, "Oh god. He didn't show you his wings did he?" She said, and then she put her head in her hands. "Luce, you know what this means, right?"

By this point, I was calm, so I could answer normally. "I could explode. Like in a sc-fi." Arriane smirked.

"That's what he told you?" I nodded, and she shook her head in disbelief. "Unbelievable. Un-bloody-believable. You don't explode. You burn up, like a fire."

My mouth hung open. "You aren't kidding?"

"Hell no. I would not joke like this. Or about this. What else happened that made you cry?"

I sighed. "He got it into his head that I liked someone else, then he asked if it was him. I said no, because it isn't him-"

"Luce, honey, you don't decide who you like. And it might just be him. It makes sense..." She pointed out. "You don't have to feel bad because you like him... A lot of girls do."

I shook my head. "At the moment, I don't want to see him ever again."

"Fair enough. Since it's your first day, you can always say you're unpacking or something. Like it matters what you say. The school's job here is to make sure you don't get into any more trouble. Not to teach you."

I nodded. "Depending on whether I'm calm or not later, I might go to Cam's room tomorrow and just apologize and stuff. The way things are at the moment, I guess I just convinced him to believe that I do like him."

She nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me. I'm going to go to my next lesson."

"Okay. Bye." I said, as she got up to leave. She pulled me up and hugged me.

"You'll be fine." I nodded and she left.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The next day, I went to Cam's room, which I got from the guitar pick he'd given me the day before. When I got there, I knocked on the door, and he opened it.  
"Luce!" He sounded surprised. "It's great to see you. I suppose you've come to your senses and realized I'm not an arrogant prick?"

I nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean that. I was just embarrassed that you thought I liked you."

"Do you.." At first, it sounded like that was a question, then he looked around, and said, "Do you want to come inside?" He pulled the door back so I could go in.

"Wow. This is very... Personalized." And it sure was. The walls were black, and so were his curtains. I could tell he was an angel who had a dark side.

He laughed nervously. "I knew you'd be able to tell. So, I'll ask again, but I'll try not to come across as arrogant. Do you actually like me?"

I sighed. "And you aren't going to judge me or turn out all horrible?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. You'd kick my ass if I did."

I laughed. "Good. Yeah, I think it might be you..." I said, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Wow. Well, yay?" He grinned.

I grinned back. "Was that yay a question or...?" I asked, grinning.

"Was that a question too? Because it sounds like it." He said, laughing. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds completely unsure what to do. We then both laughed nervously.

"I guess we take things slow and don't tell anyone... Because we're obviously not in the normal situation-" I was cut off by a knock at the door. A sharp one.

"It's Daniel." He said, his voice filled with worry.

"How can you-"

"Get to the bathroom. Now."

"Cam. Answer the door." Daniel's voice was firm and full of demand.

"One second." Cam called back to him.

I ran into the bathroom, and shut the door behind me. I listened through the door to Cam answering the door, and Daniel immediately yelling, "Where is she? Cam, where the fuck is she?!" I didn't want to be self centered, but I knew he was talking about me. I groaned, and just wished I was anywhere but there.

I heard Cam's calm voice ring out through the room, making me shiver. "I don't know who you're talking about, _Daniel. _Go away." His voice was perfect.

"I'm not leaving till you tell me where she is. She hasn't been to any of her lessons-"

"And what the hell has that got to do with me?" He was clearly defensive.

"Arriane told me you'd done told her-"

"Yes, I did tell her, I still have no idea what that has to do with you?"

"You know she's not supposed to know anything! She's supposed to figure it out herself-"

"This lifetime's different. First, she can take it. I know she can. Secondly, she doesn't like _you._" I could tell from his tone of voice that he was grinning, teasing him.

"What do you mean she doesn't like me? Of course she does, she always does." My immediate reaction was to get out of the bathroom and punch him in the face. I managed to control these thoughts.

"Obviously not always. Calm-" As soon as he went to say 'Calm', I heard a smack against the wall. And then the sound of Cam struggling. "Daniel. Put. Me. Down."

"Stop pissing me off then, and just tell me where she is." The whole time this was happening, I was psyching myself up to leave the bathroom and see what was going on and to try and stick up for Cam. Sweet Cam, who hadn't done anything wrong.

I left the bathroom, and Daniel and Cam both turned around to face me. There was a dent in the wall where Daniel had smacked Cam against it. I gasped, ran towards Cam who was on the floor, and gave Daniel the dirtiest look I could. "What the hell was that?! Why did you do that to him?!"

"Luce, honey, you don't understand-" Daniel said, trying to calm me down.

"Daniel, in another life that may have worked, but in this life it _will not work. _I don't like you at all, you seem like a right dick at the moment, and to be honest I don't want anything to do with you." Cam grinned at my tone, which made Daniel sigh. Suddenly, I saw recognition cross his face.

"Wait. Him? Are you being serious? You like _him _over me? Him?" He just seemed shocked and annoyed.

"Can you just accept that I'm still here and talking like that about me is just rude?" Cam was being sarcastic now, which made me grin.

"Can you just accept that its normal for me and Luce to be together and stop trying to get in the way?" Daniel was a big target for my anger right now.

"Can you guys just _stop _arguing? Is it really that hard for you to get along?" I asked, too tired to argue.

There was a knock at the door that interrupted the extreme staring competition me and Daniel were having.

"Who is it?" Cam called.

"Arriane." Me and Cam both groaned loudly, because I knew that me and Cam were on one side and Daniel and Arriane were on the other. Arriane came into the room and gasped.

"Right. Might as well call the rest of the angels in here?" Arriane said, in a jokey light tone. "What's this even about?"

"Daniel seems to think that its completely wrong for me and Luce to be together." I said, acidly.

"It _is _wrong. So wrong. You're supposed to fall in love with Daniel every time. No one else. Not Cam, not anyone."

"Arriane, that's completely unreasonable. I don't even like Daniel _as a friend._ He seems like a right ass to me-"

"Right here, don't hypocrite you're _boyfriend."_ Daniel spat out the word.

"Good for you. You know English," Cam said sarcastically.

"Cam. Don't be stubborn. Even _you_ know her and you aren't supposed to be together. It's always supposed to be-"

"Oh for god's sake!" I yelled, pacing. "Can you stop saying 'its supposed to be'? It's seems obvious to me that fate has another idea."

"And me." Cam piped up.

"I don't think this has anything to do with you Cam-" Arriane said, glaring at him.

"It's everything to do with him!" I yelled, still pacing. "Are you guys blind or something? I don't want anything to do with you. Either of you. Stay away from me. Stay away from _us._" I said, really angry by now.

"Why? Why don't you want to be friends with me? What did I do?" She asked, clearly upset.

"I don't want to talk about this with any of you any more. I'll be back tomorrow." I said, hugging and kissing Cam on the cheek slowly on purpose. I turned around, glared at Daniel and Arriane, and then left, because I knew that would get the best reaction.

As I soon as I got up to leave, I heard someone get up behind me to follow me. I didn't even turn around to see who it was. As soon as I got out of Cam's room, I went to shut the door, but someone stopped me.

"Luce, can I talk to you for a second? I just don't think you fully understand the implications of the decisions that you're making." Daniel's voice was gruff, and clearly fustrated.

"Are you basically saying that Cam hasn't told me anything? Because it seems to me he has-" I was cut off by Daniel's lips crushing down on mine.

"Daniel... Get off-" I slammed him against the door, and glared at him, wiping my mouth.

"You honestly don't feel anything?" He asked, his eyebrows raised.

"Absolutely nothing." I said, sharply. I was really annoyed at him right now.

"Damn. Maybe Cam _is _right. Maybe something is different." He muttered, and I could tell he was absolutely guessing.

"You haven't got a clue what's happening." I said, so angry at him. At this point, Cam opened the door, and glared at Daniel, just like I was.

"Daniel. What the hell did you do to her?" He was yelling, his face bright red.

"Cam," Daniel said calmly, "I just wanted to make sure she absolutely didn't feel anything when we kissed-"

"You _kissed_ her?!" Cam yelled, so loudly, I'm pretty sure that out the corner of my eye the camera turn around.

"Guys." I said, calmly.

"What?!" They both said at the same time. I wordlessly pointed up at the camera, and they both looked.

"We should go inside." Cam said calmly. We all turned around and walked inside Cam's room. Cam shut the door firmly behind him and locked it. "Luce, Arriane's gone."

"Good. I don't want to see her ever again." I said, absolutely furious about her attitude. They just seemed to be annoyed at my reaction to it, and Cam tried to calm me down by holding me in his arms. This just seemed to make Daniel furious.

"Can you keep the PDA's to a minimum? Luce, you just seem to be forgetting that for the past couple of millenia, you and me have been together. Can you at least try to be considerate of the fact I still love you?"

"How about _you _be considerate about the fact that I love Cam now, and not you?" I said sharply.

"That's my girl." Cam whispered in my ear. I grinned.

"Anyway, Daniel, Luce is right. If you have the opinion that your main argument is that you and Luce have been in love for_ever_," Cam said, moving away from my ear, "Can you just accept that me and Luce want to be together for as long as possible now." Cam kissed my cheek gently, making Daniel role his eyes.

"No. Luce is mine and that's final." Daniel said sharply.

"No it bloody well isn't!" I yelled, fed up of this conversation entirely. We just seemed to be going in circles. "I am _not_ a possession and I refuse to be treated like one. I don't even want to be friends with you at the moment. And when you kissed me, I felt _nothing_." At the mention of the kiss, Cam sat up tighter and wrapped his arm around my waist, as if to say I'm his. "Don't you understand what that means? I have no feelings for you. Except repulsion. Pure repulsion."

Daniel sighed, and actually looked really depressed. I refused to feel sorry for him at all, he was being a total prick.

"Well. I'm guessing this conversation is over, since you're so s-stubborn. That's what you are." Daniel stuttered a lot, like he was struggling to say anything bad about me. Which I guess he was.

"Great. Thanks for telling me what I am. Means a hell of a lot." I said, so sarcastically, I'm pretty sure Daniel winced.

"You know that if you two stay together, you can't have kids?" I winced at Daniel's tone. He was trying to hit me where it hurt. I'm assuming I was exactly the same in all my other lives. Desperate to have children.

"What?" I said, looking at Cam. "Cam, I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

He shook his head. "I guess I..." He stopped, took a deep breath and said, "You can't have kids with him either." I sighed.

"So what you're saying is that I can't have kids with either one of you? Not that I want to be with _you._" I stared at Daniel. When he nodded, I shook my head. "That's ridiculous. Is there a reason for that? Wait. I spose it's because you're both angels and it would create some sort of evil child-"

"Those types of children are called necrophilm. And you're normally friends with them."

"I am? Seriously? So why can't we have children if theres a name for them-" I was cut off by both of them smirking at each other like there was some sort of private joke. "What? What is it?"

"Part of the punishment for me falling in love with a human." Daniel explained.

"But what's that got to do with Cam? Jesus Christ, you aren't making any sense." I said, getting a bit miffed with both of them.

Cam grinned and said "Don't curse. You aren't helping yourself." The mood was now all fun and games. I didn't understand where the anger Cam was feeling before had gone. "Daniel was lying. We can have children, he was just being... Not nice."

I smiled. "Good." I said this loud enough for both of them to hear, and then I whispered to Cam, "I want that." He grinned at me.

"Funny thing with angels is that we have really good hearing." I surprised myself by laughing. I was really beginning to like Daniel, a complete turn around from earlier. He just finally seemed to understand there was no way we could be together, since I'd fallen for Cam.

"You know what? I'm going to leave and um..." I got up, causing both of them to get up too. I didn't fail to notice how much taller than me they were. "Go to my next lesson. Is that right?" I turned around and asked both of them. When they nodded in response, I said, "My next lesson is... English." My tone was full of sarcasm.

"Mine too. And Cam's. We can go together if you want...?"

I nodded, but then thought better of it. "No, don't want my fellow students to think I'm a slut or anything right? Already cosy with the hottest guys in the year and stuff... Scratch that, whole school." I was joking, and that was obvious to both of them, thank god.

"Good point." Cam said, laughing.

"I just need to go to my room, so I guess I'll see you there. First lesson at reform school that I'm actually going to. Wouldn't miss it for the world." I grinned and left, in the direction of my room, a song in my heart. I really felt like everything was going to get better.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The next day, my lessons dragged a lot. Mostly because it was Wednesday, which I had quickly learnt was the worst day for me. I had double maths, double science and English last. I hated maths with a burning passion. Mostly because it was the only class that I had no friends in, which meant I normally sat in silence doing the bare minimum. I hated science, since I'd been talked into doing all three of them as my choices. I struggled to make sense of any of it, mostly because I sat next to Cam with Daniel in front. Most of those lessons consisted of conversations about anything, just because it was good to be normal sometimes. I didn't particularly mind English, I disliked the fact that our teacher, Mr Amberton, had put us in the worst seating plan ever. I didn't struggle with English at all, but I was slipping behind because I spent most of it talking to Daniel about our past lives together. I loved the fact I could be friends with both of them. I was just so worried about what was going to happen to mine and Arriane's friendship. It had only been a couple of days, but I'd begun to rely on her like a sister. She'd been avoiding me for the past couple of days, and seemed to skip out on all the lessons we'd have together. I decided asking Daniel what was going on would be a good idea.

"Daniel?" I asked, trying to make my tone as friendly as possible.

"Luce?" He answered. This was a common way for us to start deep conversations.

"It's about Arriane." I said, trying to pick my words as carefully as possible. I knew Arriane was a touchy subject with him.

"What about her?" He said, sighing.

"It's just... I was wondering why she didn't... Doesn't want to be friends..." My voice cracked a couple of times, but I tried to hide it. It was a futile attempt.

"You really like her huh?" Daniel asked. I guessed, like me, he was picking his words carefully. I nodded, and he continued. "She believes in tradition. She's just struggling to come to terms with the fact that I haven't put up more of a fight... I guess I always knew at one point it was going to change..." His voice trailed off, and it was now my turn to comfort him.

"Daniel. I'm so sorry about this situation... I guess you can't help who you fall in love with..." I said, trying to not make this conversation awkward.

"It's fine, really. I can see where Arriane's coming from, but from your perspective, you have no idea how long we've been together and how long I've loved you..." I shivered, causing him to ask, "What? What is it?" I was so focused on staring at a black, slimy mass that had come through the window that I didn't answer. He looked over to where I was looking and his mouth dropped open. "Wait. You... You can see that?" He subtly tried to point at it, so that the other students didn't think we were crazy.

"Yeah... I 'spose I've been seeing them since what happened with Trevor..." He nodded. I knew he understood that was all I was going to say about Trevor. "Can you see them too then?" I asked, out of curiosity and excitement. I guess it was because I thought I was the only one who could see them, so I was sort of excited I could share the burden with someone else.

He nodded. "They're called announcers. They show the past." He explained. I gasped.

"Wait. I can use that to see my past? I always thought they were shadows, just really thick ones... I don't know... It sounds silly now-"

"No. That's actually pretty accurate-" Just as he was about to explain, the door burst open and Cam walked in.

"Sir. I need to borrow Luce and Daniel... They have community service now." He turned to us and winked secretly. We both grinned, even though I had no idea what this was for, but I sensed Daniel did know.

"What's happening?" I whispered to Daniel.

"Angel's meeting." He whispered back, grinning wider by the second.

"Why am I invited then? I'm not an angel-"

"It's probably about you. That's why. Come on." He got up, then pulled me up behind him. We both walked towards the door, and I'm pretty sure that Mr Amberton said something to us, not that I was paying attention. Outside the door, I saw a medium height girl, but the first thing that I noticed was that her hair was bright ginger.

"Wow." I breathed. "Can I have your hair?" She grinned at my reaction to it.

"Um no... It belongs on my head." She said, laughing. "Anyway, my name's not important," She said, sharply. "And I'm Cam's sister or friend or whatever you want to say." She seemed nice, but I was unsure about the way she'd said her name wasn't important.

"Are you fallen too?" I asked excitedly, completely forgetting about the reds.

"No. I'm not mortal... More just stuck at one age. I guess that over the past couple of years, I've become friends with these guys... You know how it is. Once you're friends with them, and you know everything about them, you can't really shake them!" She said, her mouth in a wide grin.

"So you know about them... But you aren't one of them." I summarized She nodded. "Is there a reason I'm being introduced to her? No offence, Not Important." I said, trying to keep the tone light.

"Hey!" She said, laughing. I could tell I wanted to be friends with this girl.

"There is a reason. She's not as young as she looks. In fact, she's what... Twenty now?" Cam asked the girl. When she nodded, he continued. "She's had children with angels before. Like you want to?" He said, smiling an awkward smile at me. I knew I was bright red, like the girl's hair.

"Right. In the future, by the way way way way, in the future." I said, reassuring the girl I wasn't a complete slut. She nodded and laughed.

"Well... I figured you could do with a little guidance. And So-" I could tell he was about to let her name slip, but he stopped himself. "And she's perfect for you to talk to. You two are basically the same."

I nodded, but there was something that had nagged at the back of my mind the whole time we'd been having this conversation. "Why did you want Daniel?" I turned around to see he'd disappeared. "Where's he gone?" I demanded, placing my hands on my hips, then down to my sides. I didn't want to argue, especially about Daniel.

"He's gone to find Arriane and to make sure she's okay. I'm so sorry about the way she's treated you..." He said, hugging me.

"It's fine." I said, reaching up to kiss his cheek. "It's not like you could do anything about it." I turned around to see that the girl had gone, and I gasped. "How's she going to find me to talk-" I started to ask. But then, I worked out the answer myself. "Same way you did." He nodded.

"Good. You're learning." He said, winking. "It would look too weird if you went back inside on your own. Do you have any questions?" He asked, walking down the corridor, holding my hand. He was half pulling me, half walking.

"Nope. No questions." I said, smiling. Well. I had one. "Why can't I know her name?" I asked.

"Her name isn't really... Important. But I guess if you really want to know, its Sophia."

I gasped. "Why do I recognize that name?"

Cam shrugged. "No idea."

For the rest of that day, I couldn't shake the feeling that Sophia was evil.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I woke up to a loud knock at the door, which I assumed would be Cam or Sophia. After our conversation yesterday, I'd been completely on edge. I still couldn't shake the feeling she was evil, but I also couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to be friends and would be a good friend at that. I yelled, "One second!" to whoever was at the door, hoping that would satisfy them enough so they wouldn't knock again.

"Hurry up, I can't wait long." Whoever it was, they had a very girly voice. I couldn't place where I recognized that voice from. Could be Arriane... I hadn't seen her in a while, almost as if she'd been avoiding me. She wouldn't do that to me. She couldn't. After all she knew about me... She had a lot of dirt on me... I hoped and prayed that she wouldn't use it against me. I hastily put my most comfortable clothes on, and opened the door.

"Hi...?" I opened the door cautiously, ready to close it straight away.

"Luce... I'm really sorry. Daniel spoke to me yesterday about..." Her voice trailed off and she made circling motions with her hands.

I sighed. "Daniel spoke to you about what exactly?" I said, dubious. Assuming she was coming to apologize about everything could be fatal.

"He told me how you felt really bad because I hadn't spoken to you... I was just trying to come to terms with why you would choose Cam after everything that's happened between you two that you have no idea about-"

"Excuse me? Don't act like you know what you're talking about-" I was immediately defensive.

"No." She took a step forward and prodded me in the arm. "_You don't act like you know what you're talking about._ You have no idea what's happened to you two in the past. So don't even go there." She turned on her heel and walked off.

"Some apology." I muttered, but I guess she must have heard because she turned around and glared at me. I groaned, and went to close the door. Someone's foot stopped me. Was _this_ Sophia? It was. I grinned and opened the door wider. "Sorry... Had a bit of a disagreement with an old friend." I let her in and closed the door, literally and metaphorically in my mind on mine and Arriane's friendship. I'd have to talk to Daniel later, because whatever "words" he'd had with Arriane didn't work.

"I heard." She replied. I guess I must of looked shocked, because she automatically felt the need to reassure me. "I was right around the corner. I have a habit of eavesdropping. You alright?"

I sighed. "I spose so... Arriane's a bit..." My voice trailed off as I tried to think of the right word.

"Annoying? Rude? An opinionated little bitch?"

"I don't know that she's a little bitch to be honest... But she's definitely opinionated..." I felt really uncomfortable bitching about the girl who'd shown me around and been nice to me... But still... She had a huge opinion about me, Daniel and Cam... "You know about me, Cam and Daniel?" I asked, curious about how well known our story was.

"Yeah. What kind of angel doesn't know about your story? It's pretty much the main reason for everything. The only thing different this time... Is that you seem to be able to choose... Which is baffling, but interesting at the same time... No offence! Don't want you feeling like a science project now do we?"

"Sure don't." I said, smiling an awkward smile. I crossed my arms, trying to show that I meant business. "Okay. I know absolutely nothing about you and Cam's expecting us to talk about _private_ things. I'm not entirely comfortable with doing that straight away..." My voice had started off strong but ended quiet, barely audible. I always done that when I talked about stuff like that.

"So you want to get to know me first. Fair enough. Well, you know my name and you know I have a habit of eavesdropping. What else do you need to know?"

I nodded. "Thanks for understanding. That's great. Do you want to sit? I have a lot of questions..." I pointed to my bed and she nodded at me. "Okay.. Well..." I was stuttering and sounding like a fool. I hadn't worked out whether I even wanted to ask her about _who_ she wanted to have these children with because I didn't want to hurt her feelings when I didn't know her. Those sorts of questions are personal. "I think first, we should just hang out like normal teenagers... Get to know each other, the usual stuff." I inwardly cringed. I was turning into my mother. She was the only person who thought it was cool to say that.

She nodded. "That's reasonable. I'm assuming you want my full opinion on your decision?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yeah. I do. Could you..." I wanted her to tell me, but I didn't know how to ask.

"Okay, well, you've been with Daniel for millions of centuries. So it makes sense that Arriane would find it a bit uncomfortable that you and Cam are together instead... And you aren't going to like this-"

"Oh god. Don't tell me you agree with her-"

"Of course not! I can't stand Arriane. She annoys the hell out of me. It's more fun for all of us if I just disagree with her. Plus, I actually do disagree with her. I think you and Cam are perfect for each other too, I mean, in every life time, you've been close, pretty chummy to be honest, so it makes sense that you'd choose him here. I'm assuming Arriane thinks that some form of your subconscious is telling you to rebel, since she believes in a soul and stuff." She stopped to breathe, and I took my chance to interject.

"Wait. Souls? I thought they were things that only existed in movies..." I said, musing.

"Well, to be honest they aren't real. Not the way your movies portray them. They exist, but I've only ever heard of _yours_ being useful-"

"What? How is mine useful...?"

"Well what I mean is that yours carries across. No one else's does. Hinduism is the closest to the truth that you guys have." She paused, clearly thinking. "About souls that is. They've fucked up about everything else."

"Makes sense. I always thought that religion was a bit..." I made loops around my ears, insinuating that they were crazy.

She nodded. "Well yeah. They are. So, as I was saying, I think you and Cam are cute together. I guess God thought that was a good idea." She grinned, clearly joking.

"Okay... Well I need... I mean, can I have a bit of time to think?" I asked, trying not to be rude.

"Sure." She wriggled where she was sitting, and I knew she didn't understand.

"Alone... Sorry. It's a lot to go over. Plus, my brain's over working. I need to have a shower too and..."

"It's fine. Hey, why don't I come by tomorrow-" She was cut off by a loud voice on the speakers, which, for the 5 days I'd been here, had never been used.

"Annual gym assessment. Every student to the gym."

I groaned. "Well. So much for a relaxing day."

Sophia grinned and left. "I'd hurry up if I were you. Don't want to be late."

I smiled. "True." She left, I had a shower and spent the whole time getting ready wondering what on earth a annual gym assessment could be. If I was friends with Arriane I could ask... I was going to have to accept the fact that us being friends was over. She was too opinionated about the situation. After I got dressed, I walked out of my room and into a massive crowd. I'd never even realized this many people attended Sword & Cross. I followed them all to the gym and eavesdropped on their conversations, losing myself in the crowd. I heard two girls discussing how excited they were for the assessment.

"I can't wait for this year! Apparently it's going to be really good!" Girl one exclaimed excitedly.

"Me neither! I can't wait for the swimming-"

Girl two was cut off by a tall boy I'd never seen before. "Emma, you aren't even good at swimming. You're only looking forward to it because you get to wear a swimming costume." Girl two, who I know knew was called Emma, blushed ferociously. I couldn't help but grin to myself, she was clearly the kind of girl who would fit in perfectly at my old school.

"Jeremy, no fair! That's not even nice! It's not even as if I was rude to you... Wow, no wonder why you have no friends." Emma's back straightened, like she got stronger when she offended other people. Definitely perfect for my old school. Someone who wasn't absolutely bitchy and rude, just someone who fed off other people being uncomfortable.

Jeremy just looked down, and I'm assuming he muttered an apology.

"Emma, you don't have to be so rude. I'm sure he was just joking..." Girl one's voice trailed off, mainly because of the evil look that Emma gave her and a tiny bit because someone's voice came over the sound system.

"Okay. Guys, sorry, but the gym assessment is cancelled. Our main gym teacher is having hallucinations." There was a loud groan from everyone as people started shuffling back to their rooms. I walked back to my room, and saw Cam and Daniel standing outside the door, in a deep conversation.

"Hi guys. What's up?" I said, putting the key in the door and opening it. I hovered for a second, wondering if I should invite them in. They both walked in and walked straight over to my bed. "Come on in." I said sarcastically.

"Luce, what did you say to Arriane?" Daniel asked, completely straight faced and ignoring my previous sarcastic comment.

"Nothing why?" I asked, trying to be innocent. I knew it wasn't working from the way they were both looking at me like they weren't impressed at all.

"Now is not the time to be joking," Cam said sharply."Arriane's disappeared-"

"So Arriane's missing and its immediately my fault? Cheers guys. Means a lot." I was immediately defensive, yet on the inside I was in turmoil. Was it my fault she'd gone? Had she even gone?

"We didn't assume it was you. Sophia told us about your argument and that she was really worried about the way it ended-" Daniel said.

"Course she did. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her..." I said, pacing. "I knew she was evil."

"She's _not _evil Luce. She's just looking out for us-"

"Oh I bet she is." I said, my voice as sarcastic as possible.

"Luce... Don't say that.." Cam said, and I sensed he was in an awkward position. "We know that you and Arriane had an argument-" I knew he'd want to keep Arriane and Sophia as friends.

"A small argument." I corrected. I didn't want them to think we'd punched each other or something.

"Yes, but still, you argued and Arriane's a very sensitive person," Daniel said, and I could tell he was trying to call me down. "She just tried to reason with you-"

"I don't believe this. You weren't even here for the argument-" I was cut off by a knock at the door. I turned to the door then turned back to them. "This isn't over." I walked over to the door and opened it. "Arriane!" I said, taking a step backwards in surprise. "Where have you-" I was cut off by Cam pushing me out the way.

He hugged Arriane and said, "Don't ever do that again! Come in and explain where you were." His voice was shaky and he looked like he was about to cry.

"I don't think-" I started to say, but Cam just ignored me like I wasn't there, pulling her into my room.

"I don't think me being in Luce's room is the best idea since we're not friends." Arriane said uncertainly.

I can't exactly put my finger on what happened to me exactly, but I was just suddenly fed up of fighting with her. I supposed that under all the dislike I had for her, or more her opinion of me and my situation, I had missed her terribly. So, instead of fighting, I turned around and hugged her.

"Luce! What the hell!" She said, laughing.

I laughed uncertainly at her reaction. "Sorry. I don't know-" I was cut off by her hugging me back really tightly.

"Nice to be friends with you again too!" She said, giggling. Then, the three of them shared a 'secret joke' look, which made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"What? Why are you all looking at me like that?" I said, twiddling my thumbs.

"Nothing. Well we should leave now so..." Daniel said, looking at the other two.

"Yeah, we should leave. Sophia's probably coming back so..." Cam said, trailing off when he looked at Arriane, as she groaned.

"Sophia? Sophia?! You introduced _her _to Sophia? You know that she's-"

"_Arriane._" Daniel said, cutting off whatever she was going to say.

"What?" She asked. "If you're making her _'hang out' _with _her, _she should at least know the truth about her!" She was yelling now. She then turned to look at me, took a deep breath and said, "Luce, Sophia's... Not like us."

"I know that. She's not fallen." I explained, hopping from foot to foot uncomfortably. "If that was it, I already know that."

"Arriane. Don't do this." Cam said, annoyed.

"Oh, _I'm going to do this._" She said, not even looking at Cam. "She's not... What you would think _good_ is. Well... What I'm trying to say is that she's evil. Seriously evil."

"Is this true?" I said, doubting what Arriane was saying.

"Well... She's not as evil as Arriane's making her out to be-" Daniel said.

"No. I'm not doing her justice. She's worse." Arriane said sharply.

"Arriane. I know you don't like her but that doesn't mean that you have to be r-" I started to say, but Arriane interrupted me.

"You want to know where I was right?" We all nodded. "I was meeting with the Elders. She's one of them, in fact, she was there. I argued with her, left, and then spent half an hour trying to calm down." She explained calmly.

"The Elders? Who are they?" I asked, sitting down next to Daniel, causing Cam to sit the other side of me, and Arriane sat on the floor in front of us.

"No one important." Daniel said dismissively.

"Sounds pretty important to Arriane. Who are they?" I waited for a minute, and then asked again. "_Who_ _are they?_" I said, getting slightly annoyed. "If they weren't important, then why did Arriane meet with them? Oh, and you just told me Sophia's evil right? Well, then the Elders must be evil too if she's one of them."

Daniel nodded slowly. "We tell her." He said, looking at Arriane and Cam. When they both nodded, he continued. "Luce, Arriane's partly right. Her and Sophia haven't got on over the millennia, so she's... You know how girls are, being one."

"Right. I'd pick your words carefully if you want to stay a _boy._" I said, teasing._  
_

"Now's not the time to be joking, Luce." Cam said.

"Well, basically, I met with the Elders to talk about you. Because they want you." Arriane said, and I raised my eyebrows in response.

"Me? Why do they want me?" I asked, annoyed they weren't making sense.

"We're not entirely sure either." Cam said, "But we _do_ have to protect you. They aren't having you, no matter what. I promise." He said, kissing my cheek. Arriane cringed and I sighed.

"Sorry." I said, getting up to hug her. Cam pulled me back down though. "Okay," I said, deciding to ignore the fact that Cam restricted me from getting up. "So basically, what you're telling me is that the Elders want me, no one knows why, you guys are going to protect me, which, well... Thank you, I guess. But then, wh-wha-" I stuttered, trying to think of the right words. "She... Sophia's evil." I ended with.

"Yes. Well... No. In our world no one's really evil or not.. It's sort of blurred." Arriane began to explain. She turned to Daniel to make sure she was allowed to tell me this. When he nodded, she continued. "There are some people who are angels, like me and Daniel, but do bad things-"

"Just to clarify, we don't do bad things." Daniel said clearly. "Though we both _one _bad thing to get here, but I only jaywalked and Arriane..." His voice trailed off, and he looked at Arriane, willing for her to continue.

"I done absolutely nothing. I know people on the inside-" She started.

"Mr Cole," Cam explained.

"Yes. Now if you'd stop interrupting me, we might be able to get this done faster," She said, glaring at Daniel and Cam. "And there are some 'demons' like Cam, who do good things-"

"Can _does_ do good things," I said, causing Cam to smile and blush.

"Right." She said. "So Sophia does bad things sometimes, but she can also be a good person sometimes too. She only seems to be nice all the time with you..." Her voice trailed off, and this was the bit that she couldn't work out herself.

"She might want to... Trick me," I said out loud. "Sorry, that's mental... Why would she want to trick me... She wouldn't... Would she?" I asked.

"She might of wanted to..." Daniel started to try and justify her decisions, but it was clear he couldn't.

"Daniel..." I said, looking at the way he was squirming uncomfortably. "Do you like this girl?" I asked teasingly.

"Gosh," He said. "Of course no-"

"Daniel has a crush!" Arriane yelled excitedly. "This is the best thing ever, we so have to set you two up!"

I laughed, I was so happy to be having a normal conversation. "Arriane, when did you become so girly?" I asked.

"Since about..." She checked her watch. "10 seconds ago." She said, her tone laughable.

"Oh god Arriane." I said, grinning.

"Woah. Hey. None of that." Daniel said, nudging me. "Arriane, please _don't _set us up. I don't like her, she's... She's..."

"Daniel," Cam said, laughing. "You definitely like this girl. It's pretty obvious."

"I don't!" He said, getting defensive.

"Well, I can't promise anything." Arriane said, winking.

"Neither can I." I said, laughing.

Daniel sighed and got up. "Now you've all taken the piss out of me, am I allowed to leave?"

"Go on. We'll let you." I said, grinning. I got up to hug him, which he seemed a bit awkward about.

After he'd left, me, Arriane and Cam talked for another half an hour about the Sophia situation, and we still couldn't think of a way to deal with it. I checked the time, and realized it was half ten.

"Wow. You guys _have_ to leave. I need my beauty sleep!" I said, jokingly.

Cam put his arm around my waist, kissed my check and said, "You don't need any."

"Ew." Arriane said, putting her fingers in her mouth, pretending to be sick. "I'm gonna leave now." She picked up her jumper and left.

I looked at Cam and said, "You should probably leave too."

He nodded, kissed me on the lips gently and left. That night, while I was trying to get to sleep, I couldn't help but think about everything that I'd learnt that day about Sophia. I really couldn't imagine her being evil, but I couldn't imagine her being good either. I was partly glad because my suspicions were right.


	9. Chapter 8

I woke up when my alarm went off at half six. I knew it was probably too early, but I didn't want to be late. If I'd paid attention to Arriane when she was telling me about the school schedule, I might know what time the lessons started. But, at that time, I was too busy focusing on Cam and not what Arriane was saying at all. I was going on the basis they started at nine, and if they were, I had no idea why I was up now. I got into the shower, and spent at least an hour and a half in there. I knew I didn't need to, but I was planning to burn time. I washed my hair as well, even though it wasn't necessary. I spent the whole of my shower thinking about what I was going to do when I saw Sophia again. Should I ask her about it? Maybe I should just be normal. Once I was out, I got dressed into the "uniform", which was a pair of black trousers, a black jumper and a black shirt underneath. Their reasoning for this was that it would make everyone equal. We weren't allowed to personalize our outfits at all, but one of the only things I'd actually picked up from Arriane's "orientation" was that students were allowed to break _this_ rule, since it was a basically irrelevant one, and there were so many other rules we _could _be breaking. "They'll be glad you aren't a hard core rule breaker." She'd said to me. I browsed for a bracelet, anything I could wear that wasn't so... Black. There was one exception to the rule though. Shoes. So, I, being the natural teenage girl, had forced my mum to buy me a pair of shoes. My shoes were bright red doc. martins. I put them on and grinned at my feet. How the hell could I be proud of my feet? This was crazy. I heard a knock on the door and got up and answered the door. "Hey Arriane." I said, grinning at her. "Ready to go?" I asked.

"Packed your bag?" She asked.

"God! No!" I said, spinning around and picking my timetable up to see what I needed for the lessons I had. "Double Maths, Biology, History, Geography." I said, mostly under my breath.

"Ohhhh." She said, nodding. "Look at that. We have the same lessons!"

"Is this a coincidence or...?"

"Totally."

"Course." I said, walking out of the room and pushing Arriane out. I turned around and shut the door.

"Lock the door! We don't want any unwanted guests!" She said, clearly referring to Sophia.

"Arriane. Is that really necessary for you to do that?"

"Do what?" She asked innocently. "It's not my fault that I don't like her, and _you do_."

"Arriane, don't be a bitch. Seriously." I said, nudging her. "Come on. It's not her fault she's a bit weird... I don't really like her to be honest, she... freaks me out a bit."

"And so she should! She's a right weirdo. And not only that, but she's evil!" Arraine said.

"Arriane, are you saying Cam's a weirdo?"

"No. Wait. Yes. But a different kind of weird."

"A different kind of weird?" By now we were out of the dorm building, and walking towards the main building were I assumed all the classrooms where. I turned around and looked at the dorm building. The building was covered in a green moss that looked like it's been there for years. "Who's supposed to clean this place?" I asked out of curiosity, and parlty to change the subject. I wasn't the sort of person to bitch about people, and doing it made me uncomfortable.

"Yeah. A different kind of weird. And, apparently he died. But hey!" She said, looking at my facial expression. "I bet he's in heaven!"

"Oh. You do bet do ya?" I said, nudging her, glad for the change of conversation.

"I sure do." She said, laughing.

"Did he have any family? Anyone else to look after the place?" We'd walked into the main building by now, and I was baffled as to where all these students had come from.

"He did. You see that girl over there?" She said, outright pointing. I quickly dragged her finger down.

"Arriane! You can't just point at people! It's rude! What does she look like?"

"She's got glasses. She wears 'neeky' clothes. Y'know? The kind of thing your gran would wear."

"Right." I was looking round and I still couldn't find her. Then I did. And it was like I couldn't look away. "Her?" I asked, nodding in her direction.

"Yeah." Arriane said, looking up then looking back down at her nails and chipping them.

I smiled a weak smile at her and she smiled back. "How long's her Dad been dead then?" I whispered. As soon as I said it I realized I should have the decency to wait for us to walk past her.

"Three and a half years." An unknown voice answered. I turned around to see that the girl was walking along beside us. "My name's Penn." She said, shaking my hand. Her hair was blonde and slightly brown.

"If my dad died I'd be pretty sad too." I said, trying to comfort her.

She smiled. "I wouldn't say I'm absolutely over the moon about it, but I'm sort of... Better about it... I distract myself with... Other activities." She leaned towards my ear for the last part.

"Like what?" I asked, smiling slightly.

"Uhm... I have keys to every room in this place. Dorm or otherwise."

"Wait. You have a key to _my_ room?"

"Do you stay in a dorm?" She asked sarcastically.

"Yes..." I said slowly, nodded.

"Then I guess I do."

"Arriane, how cool is..." I turned around, and she'd disappeared. "Where'd she go?"

"Her maths class." Penn said, looking at her shoes.

"Seriously? Wait... Then that's my class..."

"No it's not. I forgot to mention I can also get into the school-record building place. I already know your timetable off by heart. Yours... Is here." She opened the door, and a fat short man with glasses was standing at the front of the classroom.

"Girls. Penn, you're late. So's she." He had a deep, grizzly voice, the kind of voice I'd expect from a tall muscly man, not a short fat man.

"Luce." I said, pointing at myself.

"Right. Luce, you can sit next to Penn." He pointed to a desk with two seats at it.

"Are there even supposed to be two seats here?" I asked as I sat down in the corner and Penn sat next to me.

"No. But he can't fit everyone in here. So two people have to sit here."

"Why did you learn my time table off by heart?"

"Because he put a new chair here, and I asked him who was moving here. And he said 'Luce'. So I decided to background research you."

"Seriously? That's ridiculously clever." I said, slightly shocked that she was being so... calm about being slightly creepy. "And slightly scary."

She grinned. "Yeah. I guess. But I just wanted.. A friend. And you're here for a fire that you didn't start-"

"Woah. That can't have been in my file." I said, my mouth hanging open.

"It was. Trust me. They really aren't very good at security here."

"You would have thought they would have been... Since, y'know, they're a reform school..." My voice trailed off because the teacher started talking.

"Right. Everyone quiet, today, we're going to do... Something. For the new students in here," He said, looking at me. "My name is Mr Dafren. And I have rules. Silence when I'm talking-"

I blanked out at this point, when I realized everyone else was talking anyway. "Is he not a very good teacher?" I asked.

"He is. We're in a crappy class. No one listens." She said, doodling in a note pad.

"Wow. I thought they'd be super strict here."

"Some are. He, isn't."

For the rest of the lesson, me and Penn talked about everything to do with normal things, nothing about angels or anything.I couldn't help but feel that sometimes it was good to have a friend that didn't know anything. I felt comfortable around Penn. Maybe that was because she was human. Just plain human, she didn't know anything about angels, or demons, or anything like that. When I was younger, I never wanted to know anyone normal, since _I_ felt I wasn't normal. Now, 16 years later, all I wanted was to know someone normal. And now I did. And I was unbelievably glad about that.


End file.
